Harris Teeter coming to downtown Bethesda

Store to be located on Wisconsin Avenue opening spring 2015

Rendering of 8300 Wisconsin Ave., with the NIH Open Space in the foreground.

This story was updated Feb. 7, 2013

Bethesda residents north of East West Highway have a more convenient grocery store in their future with the announcement this week that Harris Teeter will move into the proposed mixed-use development at 8300 Wisconsin Ave.

StonebridgeCarras, the Betheda-based real estate and development company that is building on the site, confirmed Thursday in a press releases to The Gazette that Harris Teeter will open a 50,000-square-foot store in the spring of 2015.

The 8300 Wisconsin Ave. project is a mixed-use development by affiliates of StonebridgeCarras and Walton Street Capital, of Chicago.

In addition to the Harris Teeter the project will contain 395 apartments and underground parking. Groundbreaking is scheduled for April 2013 and the project completion date is spring 2015, according to the press release.

Harris Teeter Communication Specialist Danna Jones confirmed that the grocery chain executed a lease for a store at 8300 Wisconsin Ave., in an email to The Gazette Wednesday. Jones said the company does not yet have an exact opening date.

The 1.6 acre property is adjacent to the National Institutes of Health open space. It was once the site of a Clarion Hotel. The store will be at the corner of Woodmont and Wisconsin avenues.

Harris Teeter, which opened its first store in Maryland in 2007, currently operates seven stores in the state and has tentative plans to open stores in Chevy Chase and Clarksburg this year, according to Jones.

“Harris Teeter believes the grocery store should be the heart of the community. We work hard to weave Harris Teeter into the fabric of the communities which we serve, as our community members support us every day by shopping our stores. We owe our success in the D.C. and Maryland markets both to our dedicated associates and our loyal shoppers. Harris Teeter was founded in 1960 in North Carolina and through the years has never lost sight of the tenets on which it was founded: customer service, quality products, competitive prices. We have enjoyed getting to know our customers in Maryland; we look forward to establishing a long-term relationship with both existing customers and our new shoppers as well,” Jones wrote.